Any word on when Site Builder will be available? Meanwhile, can anyone describe what it will look and act like?

Girl.Geek.Nascent

01-18-2005, 05:27 AM

I sent an email inquiry asking them about it on January 3 and was told that day it would be out "in the next couple weeks" so that would be right about now-ish.

I hope it's soon because I am on a week before Superbowl deadline and was waiting for the new site builder because the blurb about it mentioned a shopping cart and I dont really wanna go build a Miva cart if I like this one better.

If anyone official is reading this, I know things always come up, but are you all at a point where you can guarantee whether or not it will be out by end of month? Trying to decide if to just go ahead and build site the old fashioned way with Miva for now. Thanks.

wildjokerdesign

01-21-2005, 09:13 AM

Just thought I would add that WH now has a page you can watch so you can know when this is available. http://members.westhost.com/site-builder.html They posted the link in the current newletter and said that it would be available soon but did not give a specific date. It sounds like it is going to be pretty robust.

Veteran

01-24-2005, 01:36 PM

"Launching Soon" might as well say "Launching Soon - Real Soon" (with an implied wink). Or perhaps "Launching sometime within your lifetime, provided you're not a Baby-Boomer". Better yet: "In your dreams!" Am I being unreasonable? Their earlier slogan said "Jan 05", and it's the main reason I chose WestHost for my site.

Girl.Geek.Nascent

02-11-2005, 01:00 PM

"Launching Soon" might as well say "Launching Soon - Real Soon" (with an implied wink). Or perhaps "Launching sometime within your lifetime, provided you're not a Baby-Boomer". Better yet: "In your dreams!" Am I being unreasonable? Their earlier slogan said "Jan 05", and it's the main reason I chose WestHost for my site.

nah, you arent being unreasonable. at least maybe you are within the 30 day window and are long gone by now.

i saw it a couple days after i signed up so i waited for it because they said it was coming in january and they said it had a shopping cart and then it changed to "someday" and the part that said there was a shopping cart disappeared. i mailed support and all they said was that they were referring to the miva cart. but they werent. they said it was a cart that was part of the site builder. wouldve been nice if they had at least said they were sorry for the misinforrmation about the time and the shopping cart - but no - not a peep. feel really unvalued as a customer. trusted what they said and lost my window of opportunity to have a site completed in time for the superbowl. grrrrrr!!!!!! still too buggered out to make site now even though i paid a year in advance :(

WestHost - BErickson

02-15-2005, 08:56 AM

Site Builder was originally scheduled to launch by the end of January. A few changes to the interface (based on usability testing) have pushed back development efforts and caused the delays. The changes being made now will make for a better product.

In the next week or two, we should finish development and begin work to create a Site Application for Site Builder and deploy across our network.

Please remember that this application was not published as a feature within any of our packages. The notice in the Member's Area and recent newsletter were in an effort to let existing clients know of things to come, but delays can happen. I would hope that decisions made about hosting would not be based on future plans, as they can and do change.

Finally, the shopping cart feature, although functional, does not yet include gateway support and has been pulled from the product. We may offer it in the future as development continues, but for now, it is not a viable solution for true e-commerce.

Your feedback is appreciated and we apologize for any inconvenience. We are working hard to release a solid product and offering.

Girl.Geek.Nascent

02-15-2005, 12:42 PM

thanks for the more in depth info. it's nice to hear someone from westhost admit there was a shopping cart feature instead of trying to make it sound like the silly customer just didnt understand.

as far as making decisions of future plans... well sure that makes sense, but ya know, i figure if the company was confident enough to say that it would be in January, well then, I wanna trust my webhosting company. I'd hate to not be able to believe anything you all say.

Maybe in the future you wont give specific launch dates because it's really not that unreasonable that a client would trust what their webhost tells them. I wanna love westhost, really i do!

torrin

02-15-2005, 02:54 PM

. . . Maybe in the future you wont give specific launch dates because it's really not that unreasonable that a client would trust what their webhost tells them. . . .

Unfortunately, (in my experience) not giving a date usually means never. I think the best would be more communication. Tell us when the date is going to slip and when we can expect it to be released. Don't give us a date and then let it pass by without some communication.

Veteran

02-15-2005, 05:02 PM

I remember a song back in the 60's (I know, I know, if you can remember the 60's you weren't really there!) on a young female singer's debut album called "The Edge of Heaven", with the line "Don't take me to the edge of Heaven, and not let me in!"

Veteran

02-15-2005, 05:10 PM

Site Builder was originally scheduled to launch by the end of January. A few changes to the interface (based on usability testing) have pushed back development efforts and caused the delays. The changes being made now will make for a better product.

In the next week or two, we should finish development and begin work to create a Site Application for Site Builder and deploy across our network.

Please remember that this application was not published as a feature within any of our packages. The notice in the Member's Area and recent newsletter were in an effort to let existing clients know of things to come, but delays can happen. I would hope that decisions made about hosting would not be based on future plans, as they can and do change.

Finally, the shopping cart feature, although functional, does not yet include gateway support and has been pulled from the product. We may offer it in the future as development continues, but for now, it is not a viable solution for true e-commerce.

Your feedback is appreciated and we apologize for any inconvenience. We are working hard to release a solid product and offering.

Aye, there's the rub: It didn't say "the end of January". In November 2004, when I signed up, it said "coming in January 2005", which to the layman (or woman) would mean starting when January 2005 started, not when it ended. So does "Available in March" mean at the beginning or the end of March? Or does it mean March 2006?

p.s. I read something somewhere that implied that if and when they actually implement their much-touted Site Builder, it may do away with the phpbb forum software. Now, there's a trade I would not want to make!

wildjokerdesign

02-15-2005, 08:57 PM

Now that phpBB is there I would doubt it would be removed. It may be there would be an alternative for use with the Site Builder. Although I have always liked phpBB and it is what I kind of cut my teeth on with php I do think it has some weak spots. It would be nice to see something else offered. If they did remove it from the Site Apps it is still a very easy manual install and in fact I normally do my own installs of it now since I prefer to change some of the defaults on it.

As for release dates I pretty much agree with Torrin. WestHost has come a long way with communication but I do feel there is still room for improvement.